Aftermath
by GallifreyenCultOfSkaro
Summary: Set during "The Last of the Time Lords". If Lucy's shot had gone slightly askew, how much difference could a few extra minutes and Martha Jones make? Martha can't bear to see the Doctor become the last of his kind again, no matter the cost. The cost, however, is higher than she realised, and carries deadly consequences for all involved.


**Title: "Aftermath"**  
**Summary: "After the Year That Never Was, Lucy Saxon shot her husband. Luckily for said husband, the Doctor isn't the only, well, **_**doctor **_**on board. Unluckily for said doctor, saving a life can lead to a lot of very complicated results."**  
**Author: GallifreyenCultOfSkaro**  
**Rating: T**  
**Author's Notes: I've had this one in my head for ages. I'll try my best to keep everyone in-character, but there's always room for improvement. **_**Por lo tanto**_**, con-crit is much appreciated. **

_DW~DW_

Lucy watched her husband with an impassive look as his handsome face twisted, eyes darkening in hatred, practically shining in disbelief. Each word spoken was carefully-chosen, deliberate, as if there mere way he spoke them was enough to make them daggers, stabbing the Doctor. Hurting him. And it was working. She could see it in the Doctor's eyes, that long history they shared...all the years of anger and hatred could not quite cancel out anything the two might have had before, once upon a time. After all the centuries, rejection still stung. So when the words came from his mouth - _a mouth that lied to me, a mouth that kissed me, claimed me, like property _-  
"So, you're just going to.._keep me_?"  
the calm tone with which the Doctor replied scared Lucy, just a bit. And after one year of hell, Lucy reckoned it would take a lot to scare her. Because the look on the Time Lord's face, the way he had spoken before;  
_"The only safe place for him is the TARDIS."_  
He hadn't sounded like someone condemning another being. In fact, the way he spoke, his own choice of words, sounded like someone who wanted to...protect.  
_"The only safe place for him-"_  
Not for the Universe.  
_"-for him-"_  
Not locking someone away to keep the Universe safe from them...  
_"The only safe place for him is the TARDIS."_  
...Locking someone away to keep them safe. From the rest of the Universe, a universe that seethed with boiling rage, thirsted for revenge against the man who had done them so many wrongs, and nothing more wrong than that year, oh, that last _year..._

Lucy Saxon understood.

And she couldn't let him do it.

Because that man, he had ruined her life.  
Chosen her.  
Claimed her.  
Corrupted her.  
It wasn't fair. Hatred surged up inside her, and her eyes locked on the gun. Discarded. Un-noticed.  
_Pick it up._

Everyone's eyes were focused elsewhere, the last two Time Lords in all Creation held centre stage. Lucy would liked to have said that she edged towards the gun quietly, but she didn't. She simply bent down and scooped it up in a manner that was not entirely graceful, but felt numb. As soon as her delicate fingers closed around the cold metal, she became numb. Whatever-else buzzed at the back of her mind (_Don't do it, Lucy, no...)_ only to be replaced by her one coherent thought; _He hurt you. Kill him._

She turned to face him.  
The Doctor's words dimly registered somewhere in the back of her mind, although they would later haunt her time in Broadfell Prison.

"Now I've got someone to care for."  
Lucy pulled the trigger.

The shot echoed throughout the silent room, as her husband staggered back, a look of...surprise gracing his features. Eyes wide, mouth slightly open, he fell backwards and Lucy was only mildly surprised herself when the Doctor rushed forwards in one smooth movement and caught the falling Time Lord, gently lowering him to the floor.

"Always the women."  
"I'm sorry. I didn't see her."

The words added to the dim rushing in Lucy's head. The numbness. Funny, she would come to reflect, how the words were recalled in such HD-clarity later, yet quietly slipped in her memory at the time. The gun was removed from loose hands. She also - barely - registered a pair of shiny steel handcuffs being clipped about her wrists (oh, and they were behind her back, now), a pair of hands on her shoulders.

Her soft eyes wandered over to the two Time Lords; one stricken and desperate, one pained yet triumphant. The two last Time Lords. Soon, there would be one.

_Soon, there would be one._  
_One._  
_Soon._  
_Last one left._

_Shit, Lucy, what have you done?_

Something unpleasant, yet infinitely relieving, like a bucket of ice-cold water came over Lucy, and beneath her red silk, she shuddered. Blue eyes blinked several times.  
She had just halved the speed with which the extinction of the Time Lords approached.  
She had killed a man - humanity's _saviour_'s - friend, possibly his once-closest friend.  
She was the reason he would be alone.

And he looked terribly lonely, did that Doctor.  
She knew not ten seconds has passed since she had shot the gun, even if time seemed to have slowed and melted. And she knew her hands had been shaking when she fired. Perhaps the hit hadn't been as direct as she thought. Perhaps someone could still fix this...  
Desperately, she turned her head, and locked eyes with Martha Jones. Martha looked at the Doctor.

Lucy held her breath.

**Author's Notes: That turned out differently than I'd planned! Hopefully **_Chapter One _**will be longer. Here's a little preview of what I have planned...**

_Time, melted time, had slowed almost to a standstill. Martha stared wildly around every exit, willing memory from that first day to come back to her. She didn't know where to go._  
_Hell, she didn't even know why she wanted to go there._  
_Blind, white panic filled her head, _what do I do? _The words played over and over again in a continuous rhythm of four. _  
_Four!_  
_Four drumbeats._  
_Four beats from a Time Lord's hearts.'_  
_Hearts that were slowing, slowing, dying..._  
_A clear, happy thought filled Martha's head, and her soul seemed almost to lift with joy at the clarity._  
I'm a doctor.  
_The room seemed to rush past her in a blur of colours, and then she was kneeling at the Doctor's side, tugging at the other prone Time Lord, whilst yelling over her shoulder,_  
_"Someone help me get him to the medical room!"_


End file.
